From the Oxford Languages Dictionary:
con·fir·ma·tion bi·as
noun
the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.
When I was a kid, I had an Armitron watch once. It died very shortly after I got it. It was enough to sour me on the brand ever since. In my mind, Armitron watches were no good. In hindsight, it could have just as easily been operator error. I was a kid, I didn't treat watches with care. I didn't have proper tools or skills, but I still tried to fix my watch to no avail.
So when my son chose to include an Armitron in his sub $200 watch collection, I thought "This is a bad idea." My son really liked it and he convinced me that he wanted it and felt a connection to it. So I thought "OK, we will get it and then we will see."
Now just a few short months later, my son came to me saying he was having trouble setting the time. He brought me the watch. It was hours behind. We pulled out the crown and set the time. We waited to even hack the seconds. When we got to the exact second, I pushed in the crown, and nothing. I pulled out the crown and pushed it in again. Still nothing. I thought, "I knew it! I should have never bought it." I wanted to chuck it across the room, or in the trash. Instead, I set it aside for a couple of days.
After cooler heads prevailed, I decided to swap out the battery. I mean, it is a quartz watch. There is a reason I always thought quartz watches were amazing. As a fan of the quartz revolution growing up, I knew the technology is amazingly accurate, but it requires a power source in the form of a battery. While quartz watches have a power reserve that is measured in years, it is not infinite.
The Armitron watch has a snap on case back. It didn't seem to have a spot made to easily pop it off. Of course I still don't have the proper tool to remove the case back. I ended up using a Swiss Army knife and a Gerber Multitool. Once I got the lip moved up just a little, I was able pop off the case back with the can opener blade.
Once open, I was able to identify the original battery as a SEIZAIKEN SR626SW. A quick online search determined that a 377 battery will work as a replacement. Lucky for me, I happened to have a spare 377 battery in my bag of watch stuff. I quickly installed the battery in the quartz movement and it instantly came back to life.
I went to press on the case back. I tried about 30 times with no luck. It would get so close and then pop out. I took a break and see if YouTube had any hints. I found a video that suggested adding a little bit of a bend to the case back. You basically want to make the case back have a bit of a dome. That made sense to me, so I wrapped the case back in a microfiber towel and used the Gerber Multitool to apply some pressure and give it a bit of a dome. I had to rotate it a lot and bend it ever so softly. After I couple of tries, I got it very close to snapping into the watch body. I then was able to press it in and get the satisfying snap of it locking into place.
Just a few things left, like putting the spring bars and strap back on. The Wrist Candy Watch Club green perlon strap is still a great choice for the watch. The Bergeon 3153 spring bar tool made quick work of it. Lastly, setting the time and hacking the seconds to match cellular time.
I could have let confirmation bias reinforce my former experience with Armitron and pre-conceived notions of how things would go. Instead, I stepped back, realized my lack of skills and proper tools may have contributed my past experience. I am so grateful I did because now my son gets to experience the joy of a watch he loves for many more years.
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